


Bruised and Battered

by beckyab10, Sinna



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 09:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6368659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckyab10/pseuds/beckyab10, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/pseuds/Sinna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Morris Delancey was more complicated than people gave him credit for. There was more to him than the kid who couldn’t stop getting in fights.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bruised and Battered

Most people assumed Morris Delancey only knew how to solve a problem with his fists, and if you didn’t know him well it was an easy assumption to make. On a given day you’d find him with a black eye finally starting to fade from a fight two weeks ago, a split lip from a fight three days ago, and constant bruises on his knuckles. Underneath his shirt were more bruises from being shoved into walls during all the fights. Officially he was around six foot two, however he often appeared to be around an inch or two shorter. He constantly hunched himself over, curving his back and crossing his arms. He rarely smiled, usually sticking to a snarl or rolling his eyes, often both. He used this to his advantage, often intimidating some of the new or younger newsies into listening to him and not getting into any mischief. 

He wasn’t the only one keeping order at the gate though. He worked alongside his older brother Oscar. His uncle and Oscar were his only family left. With his uncle leaving something to be desired, Oscar quickly became his hero. Oscar was the only person in his life he knew would be there no matter what. If Oscar was out of his sight for more than a few hours he began to feel on edge and ready to pick a fight with someone. The only person who could get him out of that state or talk him down was Oscar. 

When they were younger, Oscar taught him to fight in the alley next to their uncle’s aparment. Morris was something of a perfectionist, getting easily frustrated with himself whenever he lost. He asked Oscar why they were doing this all the time, because he wasn’t any good at it. Oscar had to remind Morris he wouldn’t always be there to protect him. As Morris grew up he got stronger, faster and overall better at fighting. He ended up using that as a way to defend himself from everything the world has to throw at him. He also decided that someone had to protect Oscar, and make sure he was always going to be around.

As he grew up the alley quickly became the place he went to when he wanted to hide from the world. If he got into an argument with his uncle or Oscar, he hid in the alley. When he was 8 years old and hiding from yet another fight, a stray cat, starving and thinking that Morris might have food, approached him. Morris was startled at first, before beginning to slowly pet the cat. That night he snuck out with some of his dinner, surprised to find the cat still there. This ended up becoming something of a ritual for him, because the cat stayed around and grew to love Morris. That was the beginning of a lifelong, but secret, love of cats. Any spare money he had went towards food for them, or yarn to play with them. Oscar found him one day playing with the cats which made it two people who knew. If you looked carefully at his hands you could see claw marks from the cats. There were always new cats coming and the old cats would leave so he never named them. Naming them meant he was attached to them, and that meant it would hurt when they left or died, so he called them whatever color their fur was.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a character analysis I did of Morris Delancey and I'm super proud of it and I hope you guys liked it. Comment like and shares are much appreciated. Thanks to Sinna for the help!


End file.
